You know, as I sat here and thought about this, I just realized that I've never bought a set of Aluminum BB mopar heads new at retail.
Edelbrock RPM set, NIB, 1150$ from a Moparts member who had changed directions and was going Indy.
I ran these heads for 9 years, blew up two short blocks under them, had a buddy port match the runners to the intake, and clean up the bowls. After it was all done, I sold them to my brother for 1000$, with the Isky ductile rockers I had on them. My brother has three years on them with nary a problem.
Indy -1 top end kit, NIB, 2450$ was the third owner, they were never used, and had been sitting on a shelf for five years. I sent them to IMM with the intake, had both fully ported and set up with roller cam springs (1600$), sold the Indy rockers and bought a set of T&D's (950$) in 2007. Then put them on my shelf...someday, I'll use them.
Indy -1, ported jesel rockers, spray bar oiling, bolted to a low deck aluminum Indy block at 512 inches. Puchased entire used engine for 10K.
Indy SR set used 3200$ MW Ported, ported Indy intake, 1250 Gold Claw, Racer Brown Aluminum Rockers, Indy valve covers. Purchased from my brother, after he bought Moparts member Atoetly's complete engine.
Modern Cyl head CNC ported Stealths 1700$ from Moparts member. Bolted straight on the hyd. cammed 440 in my Belvedere to replace cracked, ported 915s. Love them so far, two years on them.
Between my 3 brothers and my dad, they've had another set of modern cnc Stealths, two sets of ootb stock stealths (bolted on and ran, no problems). Two more sets of Indy SR heads, two sets of Indy EZs and three or four sets of Indy-1s, as well as a set of Stage VIs that we repaired about a dozen times.
We just won't even bother with cast iron any more, not worth the time to port them, and then have them crack a few years later.